It's spring shading to summer here, and I'm looking for lighter teas--more greens and whites. I still drink plenty of toasty or earthy oolongs and puerhs, but there's definitely a subtle shift. Tonight, to accompany some goat cheese and crackers, and to baptize some teawares that just arrived today, Jun Shan Yin Zhen won out over a toasty oolong that I was thought I was going to brew when I opened the tea cupboard.

My taste doesn't really change with seasons, but the temperature does affect me. During winter i sure prefer more hot and bigger volume teas, such as hojicha or genmaicha. For me matcha and gyokuro are best during summer and fall. And cold brew sencha or genmaicha are really nice during summer. Probably soon will have additional seasonal tea, after shincha is over i want to get a bit of high mountain taiwanese oolongs Also might add some raw puerh between 6-10 years old for winter.

Definitely shifting a little more towards the greens and oolongs. Still rustle up a good pu-erh every now and again, though. No tea in the cup at present - just coffee. Am patiently awaiting some first flush green tea, and a couple shu-pu from Yunnan and TeaSpring, and 2012 Korean saejak. The bf eagerly awaits pre-ordered shincha. *rubs hands together* goodie!

As the weather warms up, I tend towards the flavored blacks for my iced tea (think ginger peach) and go more greens/whites for my hot tea - no idea why though. Perhaps because they are lighter tasting? who knows...

It does not appear that it broke into the clay, so my guess is it was a weak spot in the glaze, and it got bumped by something, perhaps a kettle when I was pouring water into it and it just knocked that little piece off.